Will make India an innovation hub: PM

“The world is changing, quicker than ever before and we cannot remain oblivious to that. If we don’t innovate, if we don’t come up with cutting edge products, there will be stagnation,” he said in a Digital Dialogue, and added, “On the part of the government, I assure absolute support.”

Responding to numerous suggestions with regard to digitalisation received through the day on a specially-created platform on social media, Mr Modi was quoted as saying, “We are doing everything possible to make enterprise and innovation easier. We have covered substantial ground in the last 14 months and want to do a lot more in the future.” He said his government wants India to emerge as the innovation hub where the next big ideas emerge, driven by the power of technology.

Exhorting people to keep innovating as “innovation is what will help us grow faster”, the Prime Minister particularly encouraged the start-ups, saying they are “the engines of exponential growth, manifesting the power of innovation”. He said that several big companies of today are start-ups of yesterday. “They were born with a spirit of enterprise and adventure kept alive due to hard work and perseverance and today have become shining beacons of innovation,” he noted.

Talking about the challenges, he mentioned access and affordable access as also skills and knowledge.

To a question on challenges to the road map of Digital India, Mr Modi said, “When we have taken up such an ambitious initiative and that too at such a large scale, there will be several challenges. But, we should neither underestimate these challenges nor should we get overwhelmed by them. We must be laser-focused on our mission and that is what we are doing.”